AUTHOR'S NOTE: Hey guys! As of yesterday, Tuesday, my work decided they'd be closing down due to everything, and my school has shifted to online classes. If not for me having worked through the weekend I may have had this out for you earlier. Though that being said, if I'm honest, I spent a lot of this chapter just trying to figure out what I was going to do with it. Planning a space battle, trying to make it unique compared to the previous, what would Alliance Boarding Craft be like, etc. I spent a lot of time trying to think while staring at the screen and that can be agitating. So it took some more time. So I don't spoil, when you finish the chapter, please read that author's note too. But before you go on, just know that with the shit going on right now and the large amount of free time dumped on me, I'll see about getting some more chapters out to move this story along. Hope you enjoy!
Garrus Vakarian
We arrived at the rendezvous half an hour early and had been waiting a safe distance from the relay so that any drift from the fleet moving through the relay doesn't put us at risk. I've been spending the time on the bridge chatting with Joker and watching for activity through the Relay. It was still visible at our distance, barely, but it is a massive structure in space after all. And glowing bright blue. Finally, there were a series of flashes out in front of the relay, lots of them, and all relatively close together.
"That's all of them, taking us in closer. Contacting the fleet now." Joker keyed the comms as the ship's engines came back to life and we began approaching the fleet. No FTL, but it'll only take a few minutes. "SSV Hawking this is SSV Normandy SR-2 reporting in." There was a pause before the carrier's comms officer responded.
"We read you, Normandy. Be advised, Vice Admiral Stanford has requested your CO take a shuttle to the Hawking for the planning of the operation. We will provide a shuttle if you require."
"Acknowledged, Hawking. We have our own shuttles. Be advised our CO is in the Med-bay and not permitted by our Medical Officer to depart. Unless ordered otherwise our XO will be taking his place."
"Understood Normandy. That's all. Hawking out."
"Way to put me on the spot," I teased.
"Anything for you. We continued our flight and as Joker looked at one of his displays he nearly burst into laughter. "Oh shit," he interrupted himself trying to stop laughter. "Oh, that's gonna be good."
"What are you talking about?"
"Oh, don't worry about it. You'll see. I'll watch. And I'll have a grand old time."
"There's nothing I can do to… persuade you to tell me, is there."
"No, not really. This is going to be too good." I didn't respond, just continued to watch through the viewports as the ships came into view. If the Turians haven't found a military equal in Humanity, we have certainly found the closest we might ever see. I think I'll know for sure once we see Humanity in a full out war. Hm, and that may not be too far off, all things considered. This should be close enough. I made my way down to the hangar and took the shuttle to the Hawking, EDI guiding me to the proper ship. My shuttle had certainly been tracked the whole way, so passage was allowed, and the hangar doors opened Human carriers were built similarly to the aircraft carriers their navy used while still locked on Earth. They still looked more like spaceships, and they make use of the fact that the bottom of the ship can be used to hold and release even more fighters. There are technically two hangars. The top and the bottom. The former being what was opening for me now. It covered the entirety of the hull, the top of the ship actually splits open to reveal the entirety of the hangar bay from end to end of the ship, and where ships actually dock still being protected by the hull. This same model is mirrored on the underside, and at both the bow and rear of the ship there's secondary exits in case it's not safe to exit through the main opening or if it's jammed or whatever reason. Lights along the hangar lit up green to lead me to the specific dock I was supposed to land in. Towards the center. I slowed the shuttle and turned into the hangar, which did, the one bay meant for this purpose rather than having more fighter craft. I set the shuttle down in one of the designated spaces and disembarked. There were some engineers present and, I would assume pilots, were surprised that a Turian was the one disembarking. But they didn't stop me. I simply made my way to the elevator and took it down to the bridge. Everything else in the ship, aside from the hangars, was in the center of the ship, better protected and allowing more room for the hangars. It wasn't long before I arrived, and the doors opened to the bridge. There was a woman waiting when the elevator opened. I noticed the tag on her chest read Yeoman, like Chambers on the Normandy. She had opened her mouth to speak but was clearly surprised at who had disembarked.
"You- You must be the Normandy's XO, then?" I pulled up my Omni-tool to quickly show my information and my ties to the Normandy. As technically unofficial as it is. "Very well, this way. The rest of the leadership is already gathered."
"Thank you." She led me straight to the right and through a door into a small security room. A scanner and a table for me to set known items on. Standard, at least on more important ships. I relinquished my pistol and knife to be checked and walked through the scanner as prompted by the guards in the room. They were returned when nothing else was found on me and the next set of doors opened to reveal the war room. In the center was a holo table with the Geth fleet around Corrang on display. At the controls for the table another Human woman of darker skin and darker hair, with the Alliance bars of a Vice Admiral on her shoulder. Around the tables were various other officers of the ships present. The Yeoman began to speak up to announce me before a familiar voice of an older woman shot out.
"Garrus? Where is he?! Where the f-" she stopped herself, staring me down. Oh. Oh, now I know what Joker thought was 'too good.' "Where is my son, Garrus?" I noticed some amused smirks amongst the officers.
"He-It's good to see you again, Ma'am. The Commander is currently recovering in the Normandy's med-bay. Doctor Chakwas has not yet cleared him to leave."
"What happened, then?" Hannah Shepard began to calm.
"We were engaging a Blue Suns fortified location in the Terminus where a Prothean beacon had been found. They were likely going to demand a ransom, but we went in, cleared the area, and secured the Beacon for the Alliance. While on the ground, the Commander took a shot that struck a bone in his chest, you'll forgive me if I forget the name of a Human bone, and it shattered and tore through his lung like a shotgun blast. Chakwas expects him to be used to a single lung in two more days, with the replacement finished growing in another week or so." Hannah turned back to the Vice Admiral.
"Vice Admiral Bradford, I am formally requesting that we delay the assault on Verr by an additional hour after the plan so that I may see my resurrected son."
"We will require some final preparations regardless. That time and what's left of the following hour will be yours. Now," she turned her attention to me. "Garrus…"
"Vakarian, Ma'am."
"Garrus Vakarian, it's obvious that in the Commander's absence you are acting as XO. I understand you served on the original Normandy as well. So, I'm sure you remember the Geth incursion in the Armstrong Nebula. How I used the Normandy with its stealth drive to bring a pair of fighters armed with disruptor torpedoes to disable the shields of the Geth cruisers at the start of the battle. It is also my understanding that the Normandy 'SR-2' is a larger and even more advanced frigate than its predecessor. However, if the ship's specs are within any Alliance Database, not even I can access them. Thus, I would formally request that you provide them."
"I don't have the specifications on me, but I can certainly request them from the ship."
"Very well. However, you will speak through our channels. Understand that this is not out of distrust of you or the Commander. Admiral Hackett briefed me on the Normandy's situation. That will suffice as an explanation, I'm sure."
"Of course, ma'am." A tech in the room quickly set me through the ship's own communications and I was patched through to Joker. I got him to get me on the line with Miranda, and to my surprise she provided the ship's specs with ease. As I saw the specs myself at the end of the transfer, it was not at all lost on me that anything even remotely mentioning or relating to EDI wasn't present. Pays to be prepared.
"I remember that the previous Normandy had a limitation with its stealth drive entering and exiting FTL. This iteration no longer has that problem?"
"Correct. The SR-2 has several improvements upon the previous design."
"Excellent. That will reduce a delay in one stage of my plan. I do find it curious how the Normandy is still only armed with Javelin missiles, despite having the room and power output to support at least a sizable Mass Accelerator cannon."
"I've noticed the same as well. This is a discussion for another time, but the Commander and I both want to see about fixing that. In exchange, our Chief Engineer as invented and tested a new method for generating Kinetic barriers for a ship that's stronger than what we can currently create. It's been passing every simulation."
"If true that is indeed monumental," Bradford began as several officers murmured amongst themselves in surprise. "But yes, a discussion for another time. I also see that the Normandy's hangar bay is significantly larger than the last. Though it seems space is currently being taken by the presence of a Mako and a Hammerhead scout Rover, as well as one additional shuttle. Very well." She took a deep breath and began. "Normandy, I am going to require that your cargo bay be emptied of these craft so that I can replace them with three fighters armed with disruptor torpedoes. Your vehicles will be returned after the operation. Like before, using your stealth drive you will infiltrate the Geth fleet and leave each fighter, it's drive core offline, at the three Geth cruisers. However, you will save the Heavy Cruiser for last, and you will remain with that fighter. Our latest intel does tell us that while the Geth are only focused on one quarter of the planet, and their fleet is largely deployed as such, their cruisers are distanced. In order to ensure that the fleet can remain together and have line of sight on the cruisers for the initial barrage, we will enter the system at long range facing the planet's north pole." The hologram zoomed out to show the fleet appearing from above the planet, looking down at the Geth fleet. The cruisers all spaced out as much as they can be from one another, with the Heavy Cruiser in the center. Seconds before the fleet arrives will be when the fighters launch their torpedoes and retreat and attempt to regroup. You, Normandy, will however take the opportunity to launch Javelin missiles at the ship's engines to ensure that they cannot flee with the artifacts. Afterwards you will be acting as a one-frigate wolfpack squadron. Your task will be to surprise and neutralize all the ships coming in to join the fight before they can take position and become a coordinated threat."
"The initial phase of the assault will be made by the Hawking, our Dreadnaughts, and our heavy cruisers which will drop out of FTL at long range. All Trident fighter wings, Dagger Interceptors, and Cavalry boarding craft will be launched as our main weapons open fire to neutralize the cruisers first. Five seconds after we drop from FTL will be the rest of the fleet will appear at medium and close ranges to pick apart the remaining vessels by surprise. Any fire taken by the Heavy cruiser must only be to disable, and none of it to strike the drive core or the central body of the ship. The majority of our fighters and interceptors will guide the Cavalry to the Heavy Cruiser, protecting them from the GARDIAN lasers. And as they will not be able to immediately break through the hull into the deck, considering the Geth's ship designs, they will also protect the Cavalry from any Geth fighters that might try to shoot them off. The remaining fighters and interceptors not assigned to this task will be assisting bombers in targeting the other ships. You will all be assigned your squadrons and your exact positions in half an hour. Any questions?"
Tali'Zorah vas Neema
It wouldn't be long now until I'd need to return to Engineering in preparation for the coming battle. While I trusted my Engineers to handle most of it so that I could see and speak with John before the battle, I still had some more specific preparations that I'd need to do and others that I feel obligated to do. Admittedly it's not like we're talking about anything important, simply getting to know each other more like our conversation a few days ago. On top of knowing his hobbies and preferred books, I also know that he has a liking for candy that tastes like cherries. A berry on Earth. Kasumi had already offered to help me find some for him next time we docked somewhere. As for the simulator games he mentioned he enjoyed growing up on Arcturus, the simulator pod that's in the Lounge Kasumi already helped me add the same kind of simulators to its library. He may not be able to enjoy those right now, but when he's allowed out of the med-bay it should certainly help pass the time until he's cleared again to go back to work. Now I was simply sitting in a chair beside Shepard's bed, holding his hand when the door to the med-bay opened with a woman's shouting,
"John!" Something about the voice sounded familiar as John's face shrunk to an emotion I've seen only rarely. Terror. While this was all happening fast, I turned to look at the source of the voice and that was something I recognized. Hannah Shepard. Oh. This would have been a good time for me to have been in Engineering, I think. She had quickly checked the room, seeing Chakwas first. "Hi Karen, good to see you. John!" she stopped herself for a moment and then quickly saw him in the medical bed, gripping my hand, it was honestly starting to hurt. She stormed over, her face stoic, and I froze as, for a full second, she stared at our hands before returning her gaze to John.
"Good to see you too, Hannah," Doctor Chakwas called out in the moment of silence.
"Uh…" John gulped. "Hi mom." A flurry of different emotions went across Hannah's face in waves. Anger being held in check, shock, sadness, before she launched herself down at her son and wrapped her arms around him, squeezing him and slightly shoving me out to the side as a result.
"Count yourself lucky that we've spoken already. Or I'd be raising all nine circles of hell on you right now. And I would be slapping the ever-loving shit out of you," her voice muffled by the medical garb he was wearing.
"Chest still sore," he groaned. "Good to see you too," he added as she released some of her grip. She held him a moment longer before releasing his chest, grabbing his head pressing her lips against his forehead for a solid two seconds, releasing him.
And then slapping him.
"Yeah. Alright. What was that one for?"
"Not telling me about your new girlfriend." Keelah.
"Yeah, that's uh… That's fair," he rubbed the side of his face.
"See that? Tali, was it?" After a moment as the shock wore off, I nodded. "He's embarrassed but he didn't deny it. You have his father and I to thank for that. Raised him right," she winked. Well. I suppose she doesn't have a problem with it. "So how long has this been going on? Come on, girl, speak. I'm happy about this and we only have so long to speak."
"Um… Er-I-"
"Mom, relax. This is all a bit sudden; she's getting anxious. Let her breathe."
"Oh alright, sorry dear," she smiled at me and back to John. "So?"
"Well, we've talked and we both know that we've had a thing for each other for quite a long while. It was more or less right after I woke up that we met again on Freedom's Progress. Before I left, we made sure to chat, and… came to more of a direct understanding. It was after Horizon that she was able to join up, and we had one more chat that… confirmed things is a fair word for it."
"I hope this isn't a sensitive question for your people, Tali, has he seen under the mask?" Shepard immediately began to smile, warmly, looking right at me.
"Y-yes…" I was wringing my hands rapidly now.
"And?" She turned back to John, grinning.
"Like I've told her before. Beautiful doesn't do it justice."
Lieutenant James Vega
My squad and I, normally stationed on Fehl Prime since we kicked out those Blood Pack assholes, had been running double duty, waiting for the call to return to the Hawking in case they needed us. In two years? Nothing. Then we got these Geth putos poking around Alliance territory again. My squad and I were on the Hawking for the Armstrong Nebula too, but that wasn't a fight for us Meatheads. Esteban got all the fun there.
Right now? The Hawking and the fleet were in the second half of our FTL, the ship turning around and slowing down before we turn around one last time and exit. I had heard some of the plan through Esteban, since his boys would be dealing with the fleet while we just sat in the Cavalry craft and hoped to not just explode. Something was sneaking in ahead of us and dropping off some fighters to torpedo the Geth Cruisers. A stealth ship. They probably made a new Normandy after two years, but I saw the news. That Westerlund news interview, other reports. The Commander's back.
But right now, my squad was shooting the shit in the Cavalry. But we had Esteban on comms till the clarions rang. He uh… really needed to be talking to buddies the whole while. He had a Husband on Ferris Fields, he was there, refuses to talk about what happened, and the entire colony except him is just… gone. Not the planet, but the people. Real freaky shit. If we return to Fehl Prime and everyone there is just gone? April? Christine? And, well, of course Treeya. That's not how I want to lose my chance, to be more casual about it.
Captain Toni had just finished going over the mission one last time, he's a hard ass like that but I still respect the hell out of him. And like normal Essex was the first to make things casual again. The Blonde Biotic.
"The Alliance doesn't have any problems with taking Geth trophies, right?"
"Doesn't matter, Essex, we don't have time for that. The Geth flagship is their heavy hitter. We need to get in and out so the fleet can take it down. And the longer we're in there, the more likely our ride out might get shot," Toni answered, staring him down.
"And if you want to cut off a finger, your knife won't work anyways," Nicky added. The Egghead of the group. That's part of them being robots. You have to shoot them, not stab them."
"Essex if you are the reason your sorry asses are too slow and our ride out gets shot while I'm still waiting in it, I will make sure my haunting ghost is the reason you die on there," Mason, our pilot warned.
"Anyways, I think I'd like to see your resident Beefstick Shouldercheck try to wrestle one."
"Make sure we dock, and you may get the chance, Esteban," I smirked. It was a thing for the squad. I was the one with the biggest build and everyone knew it. So, they liked making dumbass nicknames based off it for me like I do for them.
"If it makes you daydream, Cortez, don't bother. I'm sure all his steroids made him a bit impotent," Milque, the marksman threw his punch.
"Your mother was a cow, Milky," I retorted. Kamille was the only one still quiet for now, just enjoying the banter. And then came the Clarions blared, everyone immediately locked it up, helmets on, suits sealed, strapped in and secured. Esteban wished us luck, and we him, dropping the call and the display rigged into the craft that will let us see from the front of the craft while we're in transit lit up. We only saw the far end of the hangar and another Cavalry in its docking bay for now. We felt the ship turn one more time through the FTL, and a moment later the hangar doors began to open, the lights across the hangar glowing green, and Mason launched the Cavalry. It's a Cylindrical craft with an automated defense turret above the cockpit to protect from hostile fighters, but otherwise defenseless save for the thick armor. At the end the craft came to a point, a large drill head that can be jettisoned once we breach into the hull. Along the left and right were a pair of mag clamps, and where corners would be, four harpoons to stick into the ship. When the drill head gets jettisoned, it reveals our exit ramp, which opens for us to pour through.
As we departed the hangar, we caught a glimpse of the Kilimanjaro charging its main cannon. The Brass was being quiet about these too, but I had heard about them from Esteban. Turians and Alliance worked together to make them using scrap from the Battle of the Citadel. I don't know what it's called, I don't know how it works, but from everything I've heard, it's one helluva upgrade. The barrel, practically extending across the dreadnaught's hull, and some blue light starting to show from the barrel. The Cavalry turned in formation with the other boarding craft to face the Geth fleet, and the tops of most of the ships, but we couldn't see shit, too far out. Just the planet. We were still technically in the planet's orbit, but it's a planet. We were close to it and if I were to look out the hull to the right, it's all I would see.
Then a pair of large blue beams shot forward from both the left and the right, from the Kilimanjaro, and one of the other dreadnaughts. If I'm honest, I only knew the Kilimanjaro was that as I saw its name along the hull. I couldn't see the target; I couldn't see the hit. Just a pinprick of light in the distance blooming. Then out of FTL came the rest of the fleet. Anything smaller than a heavy cruiser, and the fighters tightened formation around the boarding craft, protecting us, but also blinding us from what was mostly going on. All I knew was that we were approaching quickly. What was not comforting, was the occasional… gap made in the fighters protecting us. Whenever that happened, the surrounding craft tightened up to try and protect us still, but it did let us see more and more of what was outside of the 'shield.' At the moment, nothing. Might just be a bad angle. But soon a big gap was made ahead of us. I could see the Geth cruisers and the Heavy cruiser. The Cruisers were wreckage, their drive cores blown. The heavy cruiser clearly had gotten its engines wrecked; they were burning in all the wrong ways. But it had still rotated with its front facing the fleet. And us. Freaky bug ships.
The formation moved to the right. Now gaps were being made more frequently, and I saw a Cavalry ahead of us take a hit from the GARDIAN lasers. It was still up for now, but barely. Before another took an unlucky shot to the back near the engines, and it just detonated. Poor bastards. Suddenly, the fighters all pulled off, and we saw nothing but Geth ship hull, the monitor going dark and the Cavalry rocked as we impacted the Geth ship. With the atmosphere in here, we could hear sounds from the inside of our ship as the drills activated, but not the scraping of metal and such on the other side.
"Gonna take a moment, fucking robots don't build ships for people," Mason muttered over the intercom as he was locked away in the cockpit compartment. This was definitely longer than normal. "Ha! Got it! I don't know where ground for you to walk on is, exactly. Try just using your zero-g thrusters first," he suggested.
"A-firm, Mason," Toni answered, his voice deep and booming as ever.
"Alright, punched through properly now." We could hear the drill Jettison, launched off by small explosives. "Hey, Kamille, bring me a good souvenir, would you? Maybe something Prothean?"
"Anything for you, babe." The boarding ramp opened, and we were released from the clamps keeping us safe. Essex made a barrier for us to leave with, Toni right behind him, and myself following right behind. Then Kamille, Nicky, and Milque. The drill head had impacted the far wall and was slowly spinning in the zero-g in this… very alien ship. We were about a meter off the ground but weren't taking shots yet. So, we got down and used our mag-boots to settle. Another squad had boarded into the same deck. We had expected another, but we weren't going to wait, as likely if they're not already bursting through, they got shot down. As for the Geth ship, it was dark, no colorations, barely any light. What we were standing on was essentially just a catwalk without railings and leading anywhere that might need maintenance. Nicky, fortunately, had a map for us. Both the squads, which Toni was the ranking officer for both. Nicky pointed us to the right, which did have a door at the far end of the catwalk. Weapons out and ready, we rushed on, breaching the door. As it opened, there was only wall about five meters ahead, and wall along the right. To the left, a hallway. And five bipedal machines with a single glowing eye on their head. They opened fire immediately, killing one of the guys from the other squad as his head vanished as three blue streaks of energy raced towards his head. Two to the shields, one to the head.
"Shit!" a man from the other squad called out. Toni took a grenade from his belt and tossed it, trusting that it wouldn't damage the ship, and as it detonated, Nicky took his chance to peek out and use some tech shit on one, while Essex gave a barrier to let the rest of the squad peek and shout. We took the squad down; one being damaged by the grenade and one definitely wrecked by it. And we proceeded. It was a long, featureless hallway that occasionally broke off towards a door, or taking a right angle to either the right or left. We kept pushing, until Nicky directed us to break off again, this time to the left, I think towards the center of the ship, and the door. We breached it again, but this time Essex was already making a barrier. Geth rounds bounced off and we were able to fire, the room just being another hall with another squad, but we couldn't end it so quickly. Essex needed to drop the barrier and we took cover. They suppressed, Essex made a new barrier and we charged, taking them down.
"We should be coming up on the ship's secure storage. The remaining squads should all be converging here together now." Good. Anything Prothean in here we were to take and bail with. Hopefully the Alliance would get something good out of it. Other squads checked in, and together, from angles across the ship, we breached. It was a surprisingly and comparatively large room of the ship. With a big fucking bipedal Geth in the center. That'll be fun. Well, more fun if it wasn't all our squads converging on it. Tech attacks from all squads went out immediately as we opened fire, focusing on it. We were all taking fire now, as there were more Geth, but this thing needed to go quickly as we all dove for cover across the room. This was more than just relic storage, but supply storage. What seemed like large batteries or replacement parts on top of some objects closer to the room that did not at all look Geth. By the time it was done, Essex had taken a shot in the arm, and ten more marines were dead compared to the seventy originally sent on the mission. And however many died along the way. Some relics could just be strapped to the back of an individual. Some needed two people carrying them on their shoulders together. As for what I got? While it didn't look like anything I had ever seen before, I think it was some kind of gun.
We all retreated to our respective Cavalry craft, and I got the idea that the Geth weren't really prepared to deal with borders. I've no clue why though. I ain't one of the techies, I just shoot shit. By the time we got back, our craft was still there, but the one the other squad had come in on was destroyed, it's wreckage now pushed through into the ship or out in space. So, they took a ride with us. The ramp closed, the mag clamps released, and the harpoons cut their cables, releasing us from the ship, letting us rotate so our engines faced the ship and we could go full speed away from the ship to be out of GARDIAN range before they fired at us. Fighters were still swarming to overwhelm the GARDIAN systems, but you never really know.
"Hey, you'll want to watch this," Mason spoke up for the first time since the start of the mission. The monitor had its view rotated to instead see behind us, the Geth Heavy Cruiser and the trail of our engines. "The last of the boarding parties are reporting clear." There was a lot of wreckage around. Some may have been fighters, some from Geth ships, and some looked to be from Alliance ships. No idea how many or of which class, but they were there. Suddenly, a blue streak punched through the front of the Geth ship, at its weird bug head and all the way through out of the rear of the ship. What the actual fuck did they make? Explosions rippled through the ship before the drive core detonated, the flagship destroyed.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: And in the end I didn't even end up really describing a whole lot of the space battle. It was weird but probably a good challenge to have me write from a perspective that doesn't really know a whole lot about things. Grunts don't get the good info. Also, if I'm honest I've never watched Paragon Lost and I'm not sure if I really plan to. The only reason I know how to describe Toni's voice is because when I went on the Wiki to see his squad and details I should add for Vega because I won't pretend that Paragon Lost or it's characters don't exist, I noticed his voice actor is Travis Willingham. And he would like to rage. I noticed Laura Bailey was also Kamille but I don't know which Laura Bailey voice she used for that character. Regardless, I digress. When describing anything going on in the space battle, I couldn't really justify to myself describing much since Vega and the others were blinded by the fighters protecting them. Plus the distances that the space battles typically take place at. Ya can't see shit till knife fight range, really. Also I couldn't justify making anything really unique for the interior of the Geth ship, because, well, they're robots and are the definition of utilitarian. Any of the interesting shit wouldn't have been in one of the passageways that they barely have a reason to have to connect throughout the ship. As for them not really fighting a whole lot of Geth when inside? Other than it being spread out, remember that the Geth Dreadnought was fucking MASSIVE. Not sovereign sized but massive. It would need more physical Geth platforms than a Cruiser. Much, much more. Plus they were the only incursion in ME3. Alright, that's enough from me. Fucking Doom Eternal is coming out and the world has given me a reason to binge through it in bliss.